In an analysis system configured to automatically analyze specimens, a specimen container containing the specimen to be analyzed is set at a predetermined position, the specimen is automatically taken out from the specimen container (for example, sucked out by a sampling nozzle or the like), and analysis processing is automatically performed in the analyzing part. The sample container has a prescribed length and thickness to be adaptable to various handling mechanisms in the analysis system.
As the aforementioned specimen container, a test tube-like cylindrical container body 101 with an opening sealed with a cap 102, such as a specimen container (more specifically, blood collection tube) 100 exemplified in FIG. 7, can be mentioned. A label 103 indicating a bar code 104 and the like for identifying the contained specimen is generally attached to the outer surface of the body of each specimen container.
In an analyzing system handling a number of specimen containers mentioned above and automatically and successively analyzing specimens contained in respective specimen containers, a carrying holder (also called “carrying rack”) 200 shown in FIG. 7 is used. The carrying holder 200 has holding holes for holding specimen containers (100, 110, 120 . . . ), and the holding holes in a typical example are disposed in a row at given intervals. The carrying holder 200 is conveyed to a given position by various conveying apparatuses 300 such as a belt conveyor and the like.
Generally, a notch 210 is provided on the side wall of each holding hole of the carrying holder, and each holding hole communicates with the outside world through the notch 210 on the side of the holder. Therefore, as in the case of the specimen container 100 shown in FIG. 7, the barcodes 104 on the label 103 attached to the specimen container can be read through the notch 210 of the holding hole. The bar code on each label (113, 123) of other specimen containers (110, 120) can be similarly read through a notch of each holding hole. Transfer of specimen containers using such carrying holder is described in detail in patent document 1 and the like.
However, as shown in FIG. 7, since each specimen container is randomly inserted into a holding hole, the position of the label (103, 113, 123, . . . ) on each specimen container (position in the outer circumference direction of the body of each container). That is, the position of the bar code indicated in each label does not necessarily match the position of the notch 210. Therefore, for the bar code in the label to be read through the notch 210, each specimen container needs to be rotated about the central axis (in FIG. 7, central axis Y10 added to specimen container 110 as example) of each specimen container to match the position of the bar code in the label with the position of the notch 210 of the holding hole.
Various mechanisms for rotating the specimen container held by the carrying holder in order to read the bar code have been proposed. Among them, as a mechanism for preferably rotating only the target specimen container even when the specimen containers are close to each other, the mechanism using three gripping rollers described in the aforementioned patent document 1 can be mentioned. In this mechanism, as schematically shown in FIG. 8, three shafts 401, 402, 403 have gripping rollers 411, 412, 413 at respective tips, and these three gripping rollers grip one specimen container 100 at three positions of the body outer circumference. Shaft 401, which is one of the three shafts 401, 402, 403, is a driving shaft connected to a rotational driving source. Due to the rotation accompanying the rotational driving force of the driving shaft, the specimen container 100 rotates in the opposite direction via the gripping roller (drive-side roller) 411 at the tip. The remaining shafts 402, 403 are driven shafts, and gripping rollers (driven-side rollers) 412, 413 at each tip are constituted to idle. Therefore, gripping rollers 412, 413 can rotate in a driven manner according to the rotation of the specimen container 100 while gripping the specimen container 100.
In the aforementioned mechanism using three gripping rollers, even when specimen containers are close to each other, the object specimen container can be rotated by rotation of the drive-side roller on the spot, and each gripping roller does not contact the neighboring specimen container.